On October 14, 2024, the Biobank team of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University conducted Research at Biomarker Research (Second District, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Five years IF=9.4) on the publication entitled "The detection, biological function, and liquid biopsy application of extracellular vesicle-associated DNA".
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are non-self-replicating particles that are secreted by cells and wrapped in lipid bilayer membranes. Extracellular vesicles can be formed from the cell surface by cell membrane budding, for example, microvesicles and apoptotic bodies; multivesicular bodies (MVBs) containing many small vesicles can also be formed by invagination of the cell membrane twice, and then these small vesicles, or exosomes, are released outside the cell by fusion of the multivesicular body membrane and the cell membrane. Extracellular vesicles carry many components of the mother cell, including nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites, and participate in intercellular communication, material transfer, signal transduction, and so on.
Extracellular vesicles are found in various tissues (e.g., brain, melanoma, adipose tissue, and liver) and body fluids (e.g., plasma, urine, breast milk, ascites, saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, and bile). The bilayer lipid membrane of extracellular vesicles protects its contents, such as nucleic acids, from external environmental interference. Compared with extracellular vesicle RNA (EV-RNA), extracellular vesicle DNA (EV-DNA) has been discovered relatively late and has been studied less. However, more and more attention has been paid to extracellular vesicle DNA. Numerous studies have shown that single-stranded DNA, double-stranded DNA, or chromosomal DNA, as well as mitochondrial DNA fragments, have been detected from the cell base and body fluids of many cell types (e.g., blood, serum, urine, gastric juice, saliva, pleural effusion, and lymphatic drainage).
This review summarizes and discusses the advances in the study of extracellular vesicle DNA: (1) Detection of EV-DNA at population vesicle level and individual vesicle level; (2) EV-DNA-related biological functions, including vesicle-mediated DNA transfer providing additional genetic information to the recipient cell, influencing its gene expression or phenotype, and vesicle-mediated DNA transfer acting as a signaling molecule to activate the cytoplasmic DNA sensing pathway of the recipient cell; (3) Application of EV-DNa-based liquid biopsies in cancer and non-cancer diseases. This paper will provide potential directions or guidance for future EV-DNA research. The first author of the review is Guo Shan, an associate researcher at the Biosample Bank of Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University. Her research direction is to develop high-performance detection systems for tumor liquid biopsies such as circulating tumor cells and exosomes. Based on multi-omics technology, systematic analysis and screening of markers are used for cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring, and to reveal cancer-related molecular mechanisms.
Links:
https://biomarkerres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40364-024-00661-2